You Make Me Feel at Home
by Amortentia11
Summary: Barely scraping her exams the previous years at Hogwarts, Olivia Clearwater is determined to pass her O.W.L's in her fifth year. Starting off the year with studying hard and performing well, making both herself and her parents proud, she runs into distractions and she's at the risk of not being allowed to continue into sixth year, something she couldn't dread more.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** This is my first fanfiction in years so don't expect the best of things haha! I've chosen to not go with any well-known characters as I don't feel comfortable enough portray them accurately at this point. I have instead chosen to explore where Penelope Clearwater ended up, and the life of her children, specifically her youngest daughter's journey to find happiness within herself, as well as with someone else, at Hogwarts. Please leave a review or a comment if you have time, any feedback is really appreciated! Now, enough talking from me, hope you enjoy!

 **Chapter 1**

Olivia woke up startled by the aggressive knocking on her door. She could feel her pyjamas clinging to her skin from the nightmare she'd just had.

"Olivia, breakfast!" Her brother Will shouted. Olivia drowsily sat up and rubbed her eyes. Today was the day she was going back for her fifth year at Hogwarts. She wasn't sure if the knot in her stomach was due the stress of facing O.W.L's, or that Will and his twin, Tom, were starting sixth year, meaning they will bother her even more now that they had both achieved top marks in their O.W.L's. After putting her robes on and putting some makeup on, she took a deep breath and walked downstairs to the kitchen.

"Someone's tried to make themselves look pretty for the Hogwarts boys" said Olivia's older sister Hannah who was smirking, " _Tried_ ". Olivia ignored her and their mother nudged Hannah, staring at her annoyed.

"She's just stating the truth, mum. She's got a crush on that Slytherin boy Adyn" said Tom condescendingly. Olivia blushed. She had had a crush on Adyn since when they had Potions classes together last year. He had helped her produce a Confusing Concoction, a potion they were supposed to be able to produce in third year, however, she still struggled with it. Adyn was a tall boy with dark hair, friendly and outgoing, and very popular amongst both girls and boys. He had a reputation of dating whoever he fancies at the time and dumping them whenever he finds someone better. Olivia knew he wasn't the ideal boyfriend, but she couldn't help herself dreamily thinking about him for a few moments.

In the meantime, her brothers and sister had started arguing about who was the smartest out of them. They made a comment about how Olivia doesn't even compare against them when they were in first year of Hogwarts but she ignored them and started eating her morning roll instead. She had learnt from many years of snarky comments that it was better to stay quiet instead of giving them even more to make fun of. Her parents only half-heartedly tried to defend her these days; a part of Olivia thought they likely agreed with them. All of Olivia's family had been in Ravenclaw except for herself who was in Hufflepuff. She didn't mind this as she preferred the values of Hufflepuff to Ravenclaw's, however, everyone else in her family thought she was only in Hufflepuff because according to them, she wasn't smart enough for Ravenclaw.

After breakfast, they packed up the last few things and put the suitcases in the trunk of the car that was undoubtedly expanded by an expansion spell. On the way out of the house, Olivia had one last look at herself in the mirror. She had changed her hair since last year and felt a lot more confident. Her siblings had been making fun of her all summer for getting a fringe and dying her hair dark brown, but she felt a lot more like herself in it. Her mascara had smudged under her eyes a bit and she tried to remove it as good as she could and smiled. She thought to herself: _I only need to pass my exams. Then I can pick N.E.W.T subjects I'm actually good at and they will never make fun of me again._

Little did she know this was going to be a lot harder than she expected.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

As soon as they arrived at Platform 9 ¾ Olivia hastily hugged her parents and sister goodbye and got on the train to get away from her brothers as fast as she could. She found an empty compartment and sat down waiting for her friends to come join her. It wasn't long until Nora and Aoife were cheerfully embracing her with Aoife's black cat, Pepper, stroking her feet excitedly.  
"Love the hair babe!" Said Nora messing with the top of Olivia's hair. Olivia laughed and ran her fingers through her hair to flatten it back out.  
"Thanks Nora, how were your summers?" Olivia asked the girls, scratching Pepper behind his ear.  
"Mine was great, I honestly think I want to move to New York after our holiday there. Did you know they have a different word for 'muggle'? I felt so foreign there!" said Nora excitedly, now playing with Pepper's tail.  
"Merlin your accent has nearly turned American after just being there for 2 weeks, Nora, imagine after you've lived there" Aoife said with a grin on her face, "My summer was grand, been enjoying the single life back home" she winked at Nora and Olivia who laughed, knowing very well that Aoife who had recently broken up with her boyfriend hadn't been allowed to leave the house all summer to help her parents, who were both muggles, renovate the house.  
"How have your siblings been with you this summer?" Nora asked Olivia in a more serious tone.  
"Just as bad as you'd expect them to be" Olivia sighed "You know they've somehow found out I've got a crush on Adyn?"  
"No way! That must've made them even more annoying" Aoife said shaking her head comprehensibly.  
"Yeah, I'm used to it at this point though. I just hope they don't tell him." Olivia said knowing that they probably would.  
"I mean, considering how relaxed Adyn is with his girls I'm sure you'd probably have a better chance getting with him that way" They all giggled and a small spark of hope lit within Olivia. Maybe she'd actually have a chance with Adyn this term.

That spark of hope was soon extinguished as after the sorting ceremony, a roar of laughter filled the Great Hall. The girls turned around to see Tom and Will standing on the Ravenclaw table waving their wands in the air.  
"Oh no" said Aoife quietly. Large ghost-like figures were flying around in the air with banners saying: "Olivia Clearwater loves her Slytherin prince, Adyn". Olivia realised the ghost-like figures were supposed to portray herself on her knees begging a disgusted-looking Adyn to be with her. She could feel blood rush to her face; she knew they would have told Adyn at some point, but she had not expected them to do it within the first hour of being back at Hogwarts, let alone in front of _everyone_ in the Great Hall. As people started pointing towards Olivia Nora got out of her seat and stormed off to the Ravenclaw table.  
"Nora, no! They're not worth it!" Yelled Olivia who had now also got out of her seat rushing after Nora.  
"Are you out of your mind!? She's your freaking sister! I know you're dicks but this is taking it too far!" Nora yelled at Tom and Will who were still laughing.  
"Nora!" This time it was Aoife yelling as she saw Nora's fist heading towards Will, hitting him straight in the face. The Great Hall was filled with "Oo"s and "Aa"s and their potions professor, Professor Johnston, pulled Nora away whilst a group of boys in Ravenclaw were holding Tom and Will away from her.  
"That's one detention for you Miss and one _week_ of detention for you two Clearwater" Professor Johnston pointed at Tom and Will who no longer were grinning.

Olivia, Nora and Aoife had their dinner in the Hufflepuff common room that night.  
"Nora that was amazing but you really didn't have to do that" Olivia said whilst chewing on some roast potato.  
"Are you joking? They embarrassed you in front of everyone just so they could have a laugh, that's not okay" Nora said determinedly.  
"I know but you've got detention now! They're not worth detention" said Olivia, feeling a bit bad her friend had got detention for defending her.  
"Don't worry gal, I've always got your back" Nora said reassuringly and Olivia hugged her; Aoife joined the hug and after letting go they spent the rest of the night in the common room playing exploding snap, thinking of ways to get their revenge on Will and Tom.


	3. Chapter 3

Walking to breakfast the next morning included several groups of students pointing in Olivia, Nora and Aoife's direction. They weren't sure if this was because of them thinking Olivia had a crush on Adyn, which undeniably was true, or because Nora had punched Olivia's brother in the face because of it. Olivia was hoping it was because of the latter, and that people would soon forget about the previous night's event in the Great Hall.  
"People really don't know how to be discreet do they?" Nora snorted and stared at a group of young girls who were whispering intensely whilst occasionally looking up in their direction. They sat down at the Hufflepuff table.  
"Yeah I'm not a fan of our new-found popularity, if you could call it that" Olivia grinned, "Maybe reputation is a better word for it". Their timetables were at the table and she had a quick glance at it. Great, she thought, Potions with the Slytherins was the first class they had that morning, meaning she would have to face Adyn sooner than she would have preferred.  
"Nora that punch yesterday was bloody amazing! Can you be my bodyguard when I become famous?" Ethan, a Hufflepuff boy in their year, blurted out eagerly.  
"Oh, give it a rest, won't you?" Said Nora, rolling her eyes, "Doubt you'll ever be in a situation where you'll need a bodyguard Ethan. I'm sure being as clumsy as you you'd probably knock over a statue by accident to save you from all the crazy fans. If you'd for some reason ever have fans" they all chuckled. They reminisced over the time he had managed to pour a bucket of paint over himself instead of Will, who didn't even notice he was the intended recipient of the prank.  
"Speaking of the devil" Olivia said looking over towards the entrance of the Great Hall. Tom and Will were walking towards their table laughing at a first year who was being chased by one of the ghosts. Will's eye was bruised and swollen; he had evidently defied going to the hospital wing.  
"Do you reckon Adyn will talk to you about what happened yesterday in class today?" Ethan asked Olivia; she winced.  
"Mhm fat chance, if he does I'll eat one of your smelly socks" Ethan didn't look amused.  
"Hey my socks are not smelly!" All of them laughed and proceeded with eating their breakfast.

Professor Johnston walked into the Potion's classroom and addressed the students. Olivia threw a nervous glance at Adyn. She had a feeling him and his friends were talking about her since they were glancing in her direction, whispering.  
"Open up page 25 please! Today you will be making the Draught of Peace, a potion that will calm anyone who is stressed or anxious" Professor Johnston said, "It is very important that everything is put in the correct order", he glanced at Olivia who felt her face go red, she had a tendency of putting ingredients in in the wrong order.  
"I know it's only the start of the year, but it is important that you know how to produce this potion as it might come up in your O.W.L's. Now, stir away!" The classroom erupted in chairs being pulled out and students getting up to get the required ingredients. Luckily, Olivia had skimmed through this year's potions book, and felt fairly confident she would be able to scrape a pass. She started grinding some moonstone into powder, adding it to her cauldron, followed by some syrup of hellebore. She could feel Professor Johnston judging her when she realised she had forgot to put in the porcupine quills before the unicorn horn but was happy her potion was close to the aimed-for blue colour, compared to Ethan's potion which had turned into a mud-textured liquid.  
"Now, this would put a giant to sleep, Miss Clearwater" Professor Johnston said at the end of the class, examining her potion, "But it is at least better than Mr Bones' which would probably kill a giant" he looked pitifully at Ethan, "You've done a relatively good job Miss" Olivia smiled, that was probably the best feedback she had ever got in Potions before. Ethan looked less happy as he tried to put some water into his cauldron trying to water the potion down, which instead ended up setting it on fire.

They walked out of the classroom and as Olivia was walking through the door, someone tapped on her softly on her shoulder.  
"Olivia" blood rushed to her cheeks when she realised the green eyes she was staring into belonged to Adyn.  
"Oh, ehm, hi" said Olivia timidly. Her friends looked meaningfully at each other and grinned.  
"Enjoy the sock, Liv!" Ethan cheered and they walked off to leave Olivia and Adyn on their own.  
"The sock?" Said Adyn, looking confused at Olivia.  
"Eh, nothing, doesn't matter" she blurted out. She had no idea what to say to him to keep the conversation going. Her mind was racing but blank at the same time.  
"Right, well I just wanted to say that I don't think what your brothers did yesterday was fair" He looked apologetically at her.  
"Thanks" said Olivia, "I-I mean, it's not true, I don't have a crush on you like, they were just trying to embarrass me. Sorry that they dragged you into it too"  
"Ah okay, well it doesn't matter if it is true or not, it was a bit of a jerk thing to do to you" Adyn said, looking concerned. Her heart was beating unusually fast and she could feel her hands getting increasingly sweaty each second that passed of her being alone with Adyn.  
"Yeah, well I shouldn't have expected anything else from them to be fair" Olivia looked down to avoid his gaze.  
"Right, well I'll see you around I guess. And well done producing that potion, it's a tricky one" He said and smiled at her; her heart fluttered.  
"Thanks" she blushed "And yeah, see you around"  
Olivia waited a few seconds before walking out of the classroom after him.

 **A/N: Thank you so much for the comments and follows! Sorry this chapter took a while, I hope you enjoyed it anyway :)**


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